Against Giants, 49ers should mimic Browns

By Richard Brear  |   Thursday, October 16, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

San Francisco 49ers
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No one can doubt the win-killing power of turnovers, especially multiple turnovers, in the National Football League. And San Francisco fans know that a trio of giveaways cost the 49ers the game against opportunistic Philadelphia last Sunday in a 40-26 loss.

The New York Giants, whom the 49ers play this week, were vanquished Monday in Cleveland because of -- you guessed it -- multiple turnovers.

The Browns put a halt to the Giants’ chain of consecutive wins in several ways that San Francisco can and should repeat one way or another.

One way the Browns controlled the Giants was by effectively pressuring quarterback Eli Manning, which resulted in Manning’s early interceptions, a fumble (negated by a penalty against the Browns), and his far more detrimental picks in the second half. Manning is not so cool and experienced that he is immune to pressure when he has the ball.

Going into Monday's game, the belief was that the Browns would need to run the ball in order to knock off the Giants; however, Cleveland threw a curve ball and instead elected to win with its passing game. Airing the ball out right away spread out the Giants’ defense a bit and allowed the Browns to employ a variety of offensive plays to polish off the deal.

Yes, in addition to creating turnovers, variety and duplicity paved the way for the Browns’ victory. Instead of mechanically developing trails off-tackle time after time, Cleveland running back Jamal Lewis got his hands on the ball in a variety of other ways, occasionally picking up first downs.

Against the Giants, the 49ers should consider utilizing Miami's “Wildcat" formation to incorporate running Frank Gore as a weapon to optimum effect. The “Wildcat” worked well several times for Cleveland against New York.

Can Gore, top wide receiver Isaac Bruce, tight end Vernon Davis and other Niner skill players be as effective as the Browns’ Braylon Edwards was against the Giants? Yes, they can. Stats don’t lie. But unpredictable play-calling by offensive coordinator Mike Martz is essential for keeping New York's defense insecure and somewhat unsuccessful.

To outscore the Giants, the Browns did their own page-robbing from the script of the Paul Newman movie "The Sting." On occasion, if the Giants’ defense seemed to expect another surprising play, the Browns repeated a play. For instance, Lewis ran off-tackle on consecutive plays, usually a no-no against such a stout defense, and at other times Anderson tossed consecutive passes about 10 yards downfield to tight ends.

Turnovers and pressure by the Browns’ defense and unpredictable plays by their offense gave the Browns a win and doing likewise can pay dividends for the 49ers as well.
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About Richard Brear

My first newspaper article of many appeared in print in the 1960's, but my fascination with journalism never got too serious until roughly twenty years later. In the 80's, I became a certified teacher of English Language Arts, got degrees from the University of Houston, and began teaching writing ...
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